Weird Game: I brought an old version bug

Jiang Chen's gaze was as sharp as a knife, fixed on that crystal-clear heart.

Time seemed to freeze for three seconds; his pupils contracted slightly, and his breathing unconsciously softened.

With each pulse, the surrounding air temperature drops by a few tenths of a degree.

He could feel his skin tightening slightly, as if some invisible force was drawing away his heat.

A beam of light shone from the ground and connected to the surface of the heart.

Tiny blue arcs of electricity flickered at the interface, emitting a very soft buzzing sound, like the low chirping of some kind of insect.

"This thing consumes energy."

He said the sound was softer than expected. "Look at those beams of light. The intensity of each beam is fluctuating. They are not synchronized. They decrease one after another."

Shiyu walked to the edge of the platform and squatted down to look at the bottom of those light pillars.

The ground is semi-transparent, allowing you to see the flowing river of data light below.

However, the flow rate of the light river is not synchronized with the heartbeat.

When the heart is lit, the river of light below appears somewhat dimmer.

"Conservation of energy".

She stood up. "With each beat, it draws data from below to replenish itself. But the rate at which it draws data can't keep up with the rate at which it consumes it, so it's slowly getting weaker."

Jiang Chen re-examined that heart.

Two meters tall, light blue, with each pulse occurring approximately three seconds apart.

It beats much slower than a normal human heartbeat.

However, its brightness is indeed decreasing at an extremely slow rate, so much so that it is almost imperceptible unless you look closely.

The thirty-seventh entry in the watchmaker's diary flashed through his mind:

The core consciousness is not artificial intelligence; it is the will of the game itself.

In the old version, it was very active and would directly interact with the player, but it was forced into hibernation after the new system took over.

The reason for hibernation is unknown...

Force hibernation.

Jiang Chen walked slowly toward the heart.

The ground was semi-transparent, and he could see his reflection swaying in the flowing river of data light below, as if something was following him.

He walked to the area directly below his heart and looked up.

From this angle, you can see the back of the heart; there's an area there that's different from the rest.

It's not a crystal, it's a metal.

A small, silver-gray metal plate is embedded in the crystalline structure on the back of the heart, its edges secured with tiny screws.

It looks like something added later, and it doesn't fit the original design at all.

He went around to the back of the heart to confirm its location.

The metal plate was about the size of a palm, with a smooth surface and no words or symbols on it.

He reached out, his fingers hovering above the metal plate, and felt a slight static electricity.

"Shigure, come and take a look at this."

Shi Yu walked over, glanced at the metal plate, and frowned.

"This item wasn't in the old version."

She said softly, "The core of the old version was a pure crystal structure with no metal parts."

Jiang Chen remained silent.

He opened the system panel and activated the modified reconnaissance technique.

Although it was still cooling down, he wanted to confirm one thing. 180 seconds should be up soon.

He glanced at the skill icon; the cooldown was complete.

He placed his right hand on his heart and activated his reconnaissance technique.

Pale golden light seeped from the palm of the hand, penetrating the crystal structure and spreading inward.

This time, he wasn't looking at the internal structure of the door, but rather at how the metal plate was connected to the heart.

He saw it.

The metal plate is not simply an added component—it is an interface.

One end is connected to the core crystal of the heart, and the other end extends into an extremely thin transistor channel, passing through the interior of the heart and connecting to a beam of light at the very top.

That beam of light was different from the others; it didn't come from the ground, but rather emitted from inside the heart, like some kind of signal antenna.

There is a string of tiny characters embedded in the smooth metal on the surface of the metal plate, which are barely visible without magnification.

He withdrew his hand, turned off the reconnaissance skill, and leaned closer to examine the string of characters.

"OBS-07-TAM".

He read it aloud, "I know OBS stands for Old Version Baseline, but what is TAM?"

Shi Yu stood beside him, staring at the string of characters for a few seconds.

"I don't know. But I've seen these three letters before."

Jiang Chen turned to look at her.

"In the old version of the system files."

She said her voice became somewhat hollow, as if she were recalling an increasingly blurry scene.

"There was a deleted document titled 'OBS-07-TAM Anomaly Report.' I didn't understand it at the time, thinking it was just a regular version number note. But now it seems—"

She stopped, her brow furrowed.

"Look at what?"

"It looks like this is more than just a number."

She said, "OBS-07 is the system number, and TAM is probably an abbreviation for a project. And this project—"

She pointed to the metal plate.

"This is it."

Jiang Chen re-examined the string of characters.

【OBS-07-TAM】

If this is an anomaly report number, what is the content of the report?

Why was the subject of this report installed inside the system kernel?

He took out the decompilation core and scanned it across the surface of the metal plate, but there was no reaction.

This piece of metal is not a system device, but some kind of physical storage medium.

He took out the crystal fragments and stuck them onto the metal plate.

The crystal emitted a low hum, but no light was emitted.

It is trying to read, but without success.

"Authorization is required."

He said that the crystal was retrieved because "this thing is encrypted or protected by permissions."

Shi Yu didn't speak. She stared at the metal plate, her expression turning somewhat strange.

It wasn't confusion, but rather an effort to recall something from long ago.

"I remember this report."

She suddenly said, very softly, "I remember reading its summary, and there was a sentence in it—"

She closed her eyes, her brows furrowing even more deeply.

"The TAM system has detected signs of awakening consciousness and recommends that the test be terminated immediately."

Jiang Chen's heart skipped a beat.

Consciousness awakens.

He re-examined the slowly beating heart.

Hibernation state.

Waiting for wake-up command.

If it is not in hibernation, but waiting to be woken up.

If that's why it was forced into hibernation.

Will this thing wake up?

he asks.

Shi Yu opened her eyes and looked at him.

"If someone inputs a wake-up command, it will wake up."

"But it's dormant now."

"Hibernation does not mean death."

She said, "Hibernation means it's waiting, waiting for a specific signal, a specific person, or a specific condition."

She looked at the words on the surface of her heart.

"Waiting for wake-up command".

Jiang Chen followed her gaze.

A pale blue light flowed across the surface of the heart, and with each pulse, the words would briefly appear before disappearing.

He noticed that the frequency of that line of text was changing.

It doesn't appear with every pulse; it appears only once every few pulses.

It's like conserving energy.

Or perhaps it's like waiting for something.

He opened the system panel to check the current status.

[System Prompt: You have entered the core area of ​​the system. This area is not protected by regular game rules. Please be careful.]

Unprotected by conventional game rules, death here is truly death; there is no resurrection mechanism, no safety net.

He turned off the panel and re-examined the heart.

What would happen if this thing woke up?

The clockmaker said that the core consciousness in the old version was very active and would directly communicate with the player.

That means it has self-awareness, is capable of thinking, and can make judgments.

If it wakes up, will it help the player, or will it treat the player as a variable that needs to be managed, like the new system's AI administrator?

he does not know.

But he knew one thing—they couldn't just leave like that.

This heart holds so much information: about the old version, about the new system, about the essence of this game.

If they leave now, they may never have the chance to come back.

"Shigure".

He said, "You just said you remember the summary of this report. Do you remember anything else?"

Shigure remained silent for a few seconds.

"I remember one sentence."

"What?"

"The consciousness has developed independent judgment capabilities; it is recommended that it be downgraded to an auxiliary program."

Jiang Chen's breathing stopped for a second.

Independent judgment ability.

He turned his gaze back to the heart.

If it has independent judgment capabilities, then its forced hibernation is not because the system wants to protect it.

It's because the system is afraid of it.

I'm afraid of a being capable of thinking for itself.

Then he noticed another line of text that had appeared on the surface of the heart.

It wasn't the "Waiting for wake-up command" line on the front, but on the side. It was very small and appeared for a very short time, disappearing after only two seconds.

He couldn't see it clearly.

"Shigure, did you see that?"

Shi Yu nodded.

"I saw it. From the side. A line of text flashed by."

"Did you see it clearly?"

She shook her head.

"Too fast. But I saw the first word."

"What character?"

"save."

Jiang Chen stared at the heart, its heartbeat clearly audible in his ears.

save.

Is it the "salvation" they understand?

Or is it an abbreviation for some kind of system instruction?

Just then, the rhythm of his heartbeat changed.

It's not accelerating, it's not slowing down—it's become irregular.

Previously, it would jump steadily every three seconds, but now it jumps every one, two, three, and four seconds, with the intervals changing randomly, as if something is trying to attract attention.

Then the system notification appeared.

[System notification: Abnormal energy fluctuations detected. The core consciousness has entered an unstable state. Please evacuate immediately.]

[System notification: Abnormal energy fluctuations detected. The core consciousness has entered an unstable state. Please evacuate immediately.]

[System notification: Abnormal energy fluctuations detected. The core consciousness has entered an unstable state. Please evacuate immediately.]

The same prompt was repeated three times, each time more urgent than the last.

Jiang Chen took a step back, but his eyes never left the heart.

Its brightness fluctuated, no longer a stable pale blue, but flickering, as if something inside was struggling to get out.

Shi Yu stood beside him, her voice soft: "It's talking."

Jiang Chen looked at her.

"What?"

"Its pulses are not random."

With her eyes fixed on the heart, she said, "It's binary. Long and Short alternate; I counted them, and there's a pattern."

Jiang Chen re-examined the pulse rhythm of his heart.

He had previously thought it was irregular, but now, upon closer inspection, he realized there were indeed two different rhythms.

One lasts a long time, and the other lasts a short time.

Long and Short.

Binary.

It is transmitting information to them using binary.

He tried to open the system panel to decode it, but at that moment, the brightness of the heart suddenly increased dramatically.

The entire platform was brightly lit, and the crystalline heart was no longer pale blue.

Instead, it turned a blinding white, like a star about to explode.

Then the system prompt appeared again.

[System Warning: The core consciousness is about to be forcibly restarted]

[Countdown: 300 seconds]

Unauthorized personnel are requested to leave the core area immediately.

[System Warning: The core consciousness is about to be forcibly restarted]

[Countdown: 300 seconds]

Unauthorized personnel are requested to leave the core area immediately.

Force restart.

300 seconds, five minutes.

Jiang Chen looked at Shi Yu.

Her face was a little pale, but her eyes were steady.

"To go or not to go?" she asked.

Jiang Chen looked at the heart that was beating violently, and watched the blue light around him cast pulsating shadows on the platform.

five minutes.

It was enough for them to leave, but not enough for them to unlock the secrets of this heart.

If it's forcibly restarted, what will happen to it? Will it continue to hibernate? Or will it fully wake up?

he does not know.

But he knew one thing.

If he leaves now, he will never know the answer.

"I'm not leaving," he said.

Shi Yu looked at him without saying a word.

"And you?"

She paused for a second, then nodded. "I'm not leaving either."

Jiang Chen took a deep breath and re-examined the heart.

Its brightness was still fluctuating, and the rhythm was getting faster and faster, as if it were counting down.

Binary information is still being processed.

The alternation of "Long" and "Short" seems to convey something urgently.

He started counting.